More Google Tools: Data Management Tool, Mobile Google Docs

Google rocks. It's plain and simple. I've blogged previously about a number of their free online tools that are easy to use and available 24-7. For example, I wrote about Google Documents here and another post about later improvements in Google Docs here, and then about Google Voice here, and about Google Goggles here as well as here, and about Google Bookmarks and iGoogle home page here. And of course, let's not forget about Google Health.

Well, Google is back with even more cool tools you can use. And as always, they are FREE.

Google Docs Editing Tool for Mobile Devices

First off, Google just posted a video about new editing tools for accessing, editing, and sharing Google Documents on your mobile device. Check out the blog post here, and if you weren't ware of it, you can see blog posts about all the new Google Documents innovations on Google's official blog, at http://googledocs.blogspot.com/ . As a reminder, Google Documents is software much like Microsoft Office (word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, etc), and the kicker is that it's hosted online for free and you can use it to access, write, edit, share, and collaborate with small groups. The video below shows how it can be used with your mobile phone or iPad.

Google Refine

The other really cool tool Google just launched is called Google Refine. You can read all about it here. It's different from other Google apps because you actually download it and run it on your computer through a web browser. Google Refine allows you to combine and manage large data sets. It's web site says that "Google Refine is a power tool for working with messy data, cleaning it up, transforming it from one format into another, extending it with web services, and linking it to databases like Freebase." The Mashable article linked above also says:

"Basically, Refine makes it much easier for data geeks to clean up and use big sets of data.

For example, if you’re writing an academic paper, government study or news article that requires you to download and parse spreadsheets from Data.gov or similar source of free information, you might notice all kinds of inconsistencies when you try to sort the data. This is a particular problem when you’re using free, open-to-the-public data that no one has maintained or cleaned up in the past."

Below is one of 3 online videos that show how you can use Google Refine to parse and tweak those data (the example in the first video is a site called Pro Publica that features a data set of doctors who have received money from pharma companies). All three of the videos can be found on the Google blog site here: http://code.google.com/p/google-refine/

So next time you find yourself struggling with pulling data and cleaning it up, give Google Refine a try. For more info about Google refine, check out the Google Refine blog at http://google-refine.blogspot.com/

About the Author

Stephen Welch

Senior Vice President, Communications
Executive Editor, CHEST

This blog, "It Ain't Rocket Surgery" is intended to help busy health-care professionals find useful online and mobile resources that will enhance their self-education and professional research efforts, or point out important topics of discussion related to online information and content. The blog's title is a Yogi Berra style mash-up of two common phrases, "it ain't brain surgery" and "it ain't rocket science". I hope it will be casual, fun, insightful, and -- most of all -- educational.

You can follow me on Twitter. 

I currently serve ACCP as the Senior Vice President of Communications, as well as the Executive Editor of CHEST, the ACCP’s flagship journal. During my 15 years here, ACCP has focused on growing and developing the editorial, technological, and business aspects of the College. We are constantly striving to make the journal and other ACCP educational content as accessible and useful to clinicians as possible.

When not at work, I like to spend time scuba diving with sharks, collecting original comic book artwork, exploring the digital world, and searching for good BBQ.

Your feedback about the blog is always appreciated. So are tips on good BBQ joints.